ANYTHING FOR YOU by Saul Black (St. Martin's). Just the second novel, after four years (2015's THE KILLING LESSON), in what it's reasonable to expect will be one of the strongest thriller series we're going to have, now. This is the complicated and seriously interesting San Francisco homicide detective Valerie Hart—who seems, once again, to be involved with a mysterious killer in more than one way. It's dangerous to provide much in the way of plot tease in these books—not because I might give something away, but because it's hard to do adequate justice to their complexity without making them seem over-schemed—not too hard to follow, but too obviously a writer's show-offy bright idea. No such thought occurs to the reader, certainly—this guy, whose other work I don't know at all, is that good, clear, nerve-jangling without ever seeming to insist on that, raising our pulse rate from page 1 without ever grabbing our lapels. People are real, all of that great city is real, and the threat is always real.

LETHAL PURSUIT by Will Thomas (Minotaur). A Barker & Llewelyn novel; I often say about this superlative series of historical, London-set mysteries that they're tougher and darker than we expect from the look of them, which is Victorian. We might go in expecting something like quaint. They can be quite harsh, in fact—and can it be that they are (or Will Thomas is) becoming more sensitive to social issues that Victorian habits of mind took for granted? Or is it just that I'm first picking up on that? Never mind—the mystery, here, is as intense as ever, and the book might well be the best of this very fine bunch.

THE MAN THAT GOT AWAY: A Constable Twitten Mystery by Lynne Truss (Bloomsbury). Another historical but half a century closer to us; also British, and not just well-spoken but honestly brainy—but comic more than violent (though blood is flowing at the setup). Just the second of this new series by the author of EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES, and maybe even a tad sharper than the delightful first.

ROBERT B. PARKER'S ANGEL EYES by Ace Atkins (Putnam). Yes, another of the several “successor series” thrillers that the column has praised Putnam's (especially) for, this one a Spenser. They do this (as here, plainly) with elite writers with reputations of their own—and, especially shrewdly, they do it always with strong characters, who command not only your respectful attention but the new writer's. If you read a lot, sometimes you'll pick up a touch of the new person—real writers can't write without leaving a trace of themselves. But you'll know and feel at home with Spenser and his sidekicks. Zebulon Sixkill was one such for a time, and is on his own in Los Angeles, now, and—welcome, Spenser, to the other ocean for one episode.